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In a move that will no doubt put pressure on competing blog platforms TypePad (from Six Apart) and Blogger (from Google), WordPress (from Automattic) is boosting free storage for all the blogs it hosts from 50 MB to 3 GB. Founder Matt Mullenweg notes that is three times as much free space as Blogger currently offers, and that you’d have to pay $300 a year to get as much storage on TypePad. The increase is made possible because WordPress uses Amazon’s S3 storage service, and it is passing on increased efficiencies on to its customers.

This is a big deal. Free storage is the new arms race in online services. Blogger and TypePad will have to respond to remain competitive. It also goes to show how Web-scale infrastructure can benefit consumers directly.

(WordPress/Automattic won both the “Most Likely to Succeed” and “Best CEO” categories at the Crunchies on Friday).